The Eidos Montreal Blog answers a reader-submitted question that requests an explanation of the decision to make Deus Ex: Human Revolution a prequel, rather than a sequel. Here's their reasoning:

Yes, flexibility.

The five main points we considered:

1) With a prequel, playing the previous games is not a requirement. It gave us a lot more freedom about how we connect to the established cannon.
2) We didnít have to deal with DX1ís or Invisible Warís multiple endings.
3) Being a true sequel would put us after Invisible War and a bit too far into the future.
4) There was a lot of untapped material in the timeline before DX1.
5) Exploring the time surrounding the introduction of mech augs just struck a chord with us.

StingingVelvet wrote on Sep 2, 2011, 16:14:Took me 33 hours to beat the game talking to everyone and exploring everywhere, playing a stealthy yet lethal pistol man. I did miss one side mission due to a glitch where reading the PDA entry did not update the quest.

Let me guess, the PDA you picked up off the ground near the body in the butcher's basement? For the Shanghai mission for the LIMB doctor?

Yeh, I'd missed it too. Fortunately I'd saved a game around that area. If you return to where you actually performed the other side mission of knocking out a bunch of guys and taking a microchip, there's a sewer grate there that takes you almost right to the guy you need to fight.

I don't recall what section of the city it's in... just that it's on a sub-level of the 2-level city. That almost looks like an a canal or some other trashy place where people wouldn't normally stand around.

I only went back for the Achievement after I beat the game, so I didn't really benefit from the free Praxis Point the doctor gave me.

This comment was edited on Sep 8, 2011, 10:38.

"Space. It seems to go on and on forever. But then you get to the end and a gorilla starts throwing barrels at you." -Fry, Futurama

Took me 33 hours to beat the game talking to everyone and exploring everywhere, playing a stealthy yet lethal pistol man. I did miss one side mission due to a glitch where reading the PDA entry did not update the quest.

Replaying it now as a ghost who never kills anything. Games goes by MUCH quicker when you aren't exploring as much or hacking every computer. I bet I will finish my second playthrough in like 12 hours.

Also, the people bitching about bosses being really hard for stealth characters: phooey. I beat Barret with nothing but a tranq rifle by throwing the explosive barrels in the room at him after stunning him with concussion grenades. Took like 4 barrels on hard mode.

Not true. I am sure it is easier that way, but I got the acehievement after ten or so tries where I was adjusting my positioning and angle.But yes, the physics are broken for that ball.Going to beat the game this weekend ,Ray

Beamer wrote on Sep 2, 2011, 11:22:Exploring areas is much quicker when everyone nearby is bleeding out the skull, haha.

You're a bad person, Beamer.

Creston

Then you really don't want to know the only place I used the heavy machine gun.I got the achievement for knocking 100 people out, at least. But I definitely downed more, partially because I realized they got revived and wanted to put an end to that, partly because I was low on tranq darts midgame (but loaded in endgame), and partly because of that last level.

I'm the same way. I have a friend who just finished his second playthrough, and steam says I'm at 16 hours and I just hit the Ty Yong server room last night.

I love exploring, hacking, and silent takedowns, and there's no shortage of any of those.

Trust me, if it could be hacked I hacked it.But it was quicker for me. Since I tended to kill everyone around whatever I wanted to hack I didn't have to worry about being snuck up on. Exploring areas is much quicker when everyone nearby is bleeding out the skull, haha.

Fair enough. Not reloading definitely cut my playtime down a lot, as I didn't do the same thing 4 or 5 times unless I died, and death isn't very common.

I explored every nook and cranny, too, which meant finding all 8 ways into every room, and I talked to more or less everyone, but my willingness to fight made things easier, as a room full of guards meant I could just blast them rather than keep circling a planter to keep them on the other side. I mean, I did that a few times, but never too carefully as I knew my backup plan was a good one.

Beamer wrote on Sep 2, 2011, 10:45:I'm still baffled as to how people have spent 3x the amount I have.I went quick, I know, as I like killing too much to dawdle too long, and I definitely didn't explore Shanghai too much the second time around (I'd seen it once, and was finding it empty, so I didn't really look for much to do), but 3x? That's a whole lot.

I did my first Oblivion run-through in 70 hours I think, and that game had much more content (and much more filler.)

You kill everything. I try to get Ghost everywhere. So whenever I come upon a room with a couple of guards in it, I spend 5-10 minutes observing where they go and mapping out a plan of attack. Then it undoubtedly fails, which means I reload (to the start of the room, I like to do them in one go), and try again.

Plus I always talk to everyone, hear everything they have to say, I run around a lot. For awhile, at the start, I took every single weapon back to the vendor so I got the weapon price for it (rather than have it convert into ammo and get the ammo price), which in hindsight was useless, since I have 60K credits and nothing to spend it on, so that took up a good few hours.

And if I've done a room in a certain way, I tend to replay it from time to time to see if I can do it more smoothly.

Plus, I keep exploring every nook and cranny, I went back to rooms I'd visited before when I made it back to Detroit, because you can rehack everything (XP!)

and I tend to just run around and enjoy the scenery, plus I always try to find new nooks and crannies, so I'll try to make absurd jumps off buildings to get to that one water tower, in the offchance there's like a box of 10mm ammo behind it.

I'm still baffled as to how people have spent 3x the amount I have.I went quick, I know, as I like killing too much to dawdle too long, and I definitely didn't explore Shanghai too much the second time around (I'd seen it once, and was finding it empty, so I didn't really look for much to do), but 3x? That's a whole lot.

I did my first Oblivion run-through in 70 hours I think, and that game had much more content (and much more filler.)

I got that by dunking, using the augmented jump and releasing the ball. It still took about a dozen attempts but I got there, and of course looked cool doing so. The failed attempts won't make the highlight reel so my reputation will be intact.